Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Meeting of November 28, 2005

Club President Jim Luce called the meeting to order promptly at 8:00 PM andserved as General Evaluator while Luigi Cavandoli, our Vice President for Membership and Community Relations, served as Toastmaster for the evening.

Jose Ortiz did an excellent presention of Speech #4 (How You Say It ) that wasevaluated by Silvia Vendetuoli, and our Word Master, Anna Doumnova, selected theword "serene" as the word of the day. Luigi elaborated on "serene" in the contextof styles of addressing nobility, and overall it proved to be a popular word sinceeveryone who spoke during the Table Topics session, which was led by me, Woody Deas,was able to incorporate the word in their reply.

Sue, Doris, Jim, Malcolm, Marlene, Silvia, and Luigi responded to questions on topicsthat included commenting on originality and creativity in the enormously successful Harry Potter series by the British author J.K. Rowling, to a personal impression of Mona Lisa's smile, on to a personal view concerning the legitimacy of the horoscope.Other questions were about Hollywood and if they are giving the public what the publicwants and a question concerned our admiration of great communicators. A final questionconcerned free speech and censorship in the arts and popular music.

Doris, who has actually viewed the Mona Lisa up close and personal, reflected on hervisit to France, and Marlene spoke admirably about childbirth, that profound act of passing on much more than words to the next generation. Malcolm provided the audience with some interesting historical commentary concerning Hollywood and the movie-making industry, and Silvia spoke with concern about censorship. All of the replies were presented well, but Luigi, whose leadership for the evening was warm and receptive, was voted best Table Topics speaker. His insightful and interesting comments are often educational as well, and as always his presentation skills are great. As for my own performance, well I thought it was an improvement over my disasterous performance last time I was Table Topics Master, but I have a ways to go yet. Thanks to all for making the meeting a success.